Finnish ISP Ordered To Block Access To Finnish EFF Site As Part Of Pirate Bay Censorship Campaign

from the well-look-at-that dept

Rick Falkvinge points us to the news that as part of a court ruling forcing Finnish ISP Elisa to try to block access to a bunch of "pirate" websites, it also ordered the company to block access to a website run by Electronic Frontier Finland. The site, piraattilahti.fi, has all sorts of EFF-style info about Finliand. I believe that EFFinland is entirely separate from the American EFF, but is basically a local version of it, that covers the same types of issues in Finland. This raises all sorts of questions -- many of which are pretty troubling. In an effort to stop access to The Pirate Bay, the fact that a court would also order access blocked to an advocacy website talking about digital freedoms is pretty troubling, and highlights how "blocking over copyright" can very easily lapse into "blocking over speech."

Steps towards a dictatorship in Finland.
1) Block/Censor speech opposed to current laws, such as copyright.

2) Once the public gets used to 1), start to censor/block speech opposing Finland's leaders, especially opposition leaders.

3) When blocking fails to prevent that speech, start to throw people in jail for speaking against Finish laws & leaders. It's all in the name of security for Finish intellectual property after all!

4) When people opposed to your censorship start to run for public office, make it illegal to run against incumbents, those the people who run against you in jail.

5) When you unanimously win reelection, use your large margin of victory to justify more draconian laws to protect yourself from getting overthrown by angry mobs, all in the name of protecting 'intellectual property' of course.

6) Declare 'victory' in protecting intellectual property, but say more work still must be done, as piracy hasn't hit 0% yet. Pass more draconian laws vaguely related to intellectual property in order to stifle opposition.

Yeah, but

I like the EFF and enjoy many of their positions, but they're pretty pro-piracy. Civil rights are important but there are lines and when you cross them you become an accessory. Imagine that some anti-poverty group was organizing Flash Robs? Or some pro gay marriage group was smashing the car windows of haters?

They're just interested in supporting the rights of the pirates. If they would take the side of the artists occasionally, the artists wouldn't hate on them.

False Alert

This news story seems false.

It is right to say that piraattilahti means "Pirate Bay" in Finnish. It is reasonable to assume that this domain once pointed to TPB before someone changed the DNS record to have it point to Finland's version of the EFF instead.

This seems a good action to take to create some false censorship stories... just like this one. They should have used a less descriptive domain.

Re: False Alert

This seems a good action to take to create some false censorship stories... just like this one. They should have used a less descriptive domain.

I really don't know the whole story on this and you may be right, but, I will take a slight exception to your last sentence. A name is a name. Period. Perhaps the court (or whoever is responsible for this action) should have been more careful. Let's say I own a legit movie store that specializes in high sea adventure movies and I name my domain PirateMovies.com, should I expect my domain name to be taken also?

Re: Yeah, but

Re: Re: False Alert

"PirateMovies.com, should I expect my domain name to be taken also?" Anymore.... well yes. Any mention of pirates and movies in the same breath constitutes willing infringement and will get your domain taken for an undisclosed amount of time, and may or may not receive a trial. You have no right to know what you may or may not have done, and neither does your lawyer.

Re: Yeah, but

I can't believe anyone would say it is fair to censor an EFF domain. They are an organization strongly active in protecting a free, fair and uncensored Internet and they help people being harassed and abused by large organizations and copyright sharks.

Since they do nothing unlawful then congratulations for wanting to censor a different opinion. I would not even class them as pro-piracy but anti-abuse that copyright does.

Anyway the more the copyright side try to force us to eat crap like SOPA and PIPA the more people who will side with the EFF's position.

Re: Re: Yeah, but

Yeah, but one of the things that I've learned from copyright maximalist commenters here is that to them, being anti-copyright abuse is the same as being pro-piracy in their minds. Techdirt itself is routinely accused of supporting piracy when it really just opposes copyright abuse.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" -- Upton Sinclair

EFF

Re: Yeah, but

"Civil rights are important but there are lines and when you cross them you become an accessory." really? could you illustrate a real world example of this rather than some bat-shit analogies that don't fit the situation at all? "the artists wouldn't hate on them." which artists?

Re: Re: Re: Re: False Alert

Re:

The ISP really isn't the one to blame here. They're just covering their own asses while the case heads to courts of appeal (hovioikeus), and regardless of outcome, will most likely end up in the Finnish supreme court eventually.

Elisa (the ISP in case here) was ordered by the Enforcement office to implement the district courts verdict and was apparently also informed that if they decline and lose in the court of appeals, they would have to pay the conditional fines retroactively.

True. Finland has blocked the website. Especially the youth are raging about this. But I must put pressure on the fact that out government did not do this, it was the Finnish Anti-Piracy group. They didn't event ask the government.
But, I'm sure that Piratebay will open up soon enough. There are too many Liberals in our government for this to continue unnoticed.

Piratebay is not just some random piracy website, it is a place where many writers start their work. It has documents, and other things. It has copies of the Communist Manifesto and other stuff. It's not a pirate website, it a torrent sharing website. Blocking it was nonfinnish.